Alex Sanders (Alexander M. Sanders Jr.)

Alex Sanders, known formally as Alexander Mullings Sanders Jr., was a South Carolina judge, college president, state lawmaker and lawyer whose storytelling and wit made him one of the state's best known public figures. He died on October 20, 2026, at the age of 87.

Sanders was born on September 29, 1939, in Columbia, South Carolina. He served in the U.S. Army before earning his undergraduate and law degrees at the University of South Carolina, followed by a master's degree in judicial process from the University of Virginia. He began his career as a trial lawyer in Columbia and entered politics, serving in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1967 to 1975 and in the state Senate from 1977 to 1983.

In the early 1980s, Sanders became the first chief judge of the newly created South Carolina Court of Appeals, a post he held from 1983 to 1992. In 1992 he moved from the bench to higher education, becoming the 19th president of the College of Charleston. His nine years leading the college, until 2001, were marked by substantial growth in undergraduate enrollment and an expansion of graduate programs, along with the purchase of property that became the Addlestone Library. He took on the presidency despite having little formal academic administration experience, a decision that drew some skepticism at the time but one supporters later credited with modernizing the school. After stepping down as president in 2001, he remained involved with the college as a teacher, continuing to lead classes there until the fall of 2020, and he was also among the founders and early investors of the Charleston School of Law, a private institution that opened in 2003 to give South Carolina a second law school outside the University of South Carolina.

Sanders ran statewide office only once, as the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2002, a race he lost. He later spent time outside South Carolina as a fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics and taught law at Harvard Law School, in addition to his long teaching relationship with the University of South Carolina. Those who knew him, including fellow lawyers, politicians and students, often said his greatest gift was as a raconteur, able to hold a room with humor and historical tales as easily as with legal argument.

According to his family, Sanders had lunch with his daughter on October 20, 2026, hours before his death, and seemed in good spirits. He then went to take a nap and did not wake up. No cause of death has been made public, and the family's account suggests his death was sudden and unexpected rather than the result of a known illness. His death was announced by the College of Charleston and reported by South Carolina news outlets including the Post and Courier and ABC News 4. He was predeceased by his wife of 61 years, Zoe Dutrow Sanders, who died earlier in 2026, and is survived by his daughter, Zoe Caroline Sanders, also an attorney.